betking Newsmax Defamation Case Over 2020 Election Begins

The latest case tied to false claims made on cable news about the 2020 U.S. presidential election is headed to trial.

On Thursday, jury selection began in a defamation case brought against the right-wing news channel Newsmax by Smartmatic, an election technology company. The case mirrors the blockbuster Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News lawsuit, which was settled last year for $787.5 million minutes before opening statements were to begin.

Smartmatic, which was little known before 2020, provided voting services in just one county in California during the election. But it, along with Dominion, was pulled into a cascade of conspiracy theories about election fraud promoted by supporters of President Donald J. Trump on cable networks and elsewhere as they tried to cast doubt over the election results.

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In a lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court in 2021, Smartmatic accused Newsmax, a pro-Trump cable channel based in Boca Raton, Fla., of trying to entice viewers from its rival, Fox News, by airing reports linking Smartmatic to baseless conspiracy theories that it had helped swing that election for Joseph R. Biden Jr. by switching votes.

ImageNewsmax, which operated this booth at the Republican National Convention in July, called the lawsuit a threat to free speech and freedom of the press.Credit...Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Newsmax has said that it was merely covering allegations made by Mr. Trump and his allies over the election results and that the lawsuit “threatens freedom of speech and freedom of press.”

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